FAR FROM ERIS • FreenBecky •

TWO

-🎶-

Six years later

Freen had spent the last three hours locked in that room, signing the first page of each of the books piled up in dozens of columns around her. Her left wrist hurt, her neck, her back. Everything hurt -Twenty-eight years old, Freen, and look at you- she thought as she stretched her arms over her head.
She absentmindedly looked at the cover of the copy she had just signed. -Far from Eris, by Freen Sarocha.- There it was. Two whole years of her life dedicated to those pages where she poured out three years of therapy. She sighed.
-You had to jump, didn't you?- she whispered to herself. -You couldn't just turn around and come eat a sad slice of pizza with me.- She stroked the cover of the book.
-Freen- a voice called her from the door, startling her. -How's the signing of the next Best Seller going?-
A tall, dark-haired guy with hair falling over his forehead and a silver earring in each ear appeared in the room, pulling her out of her thoughts.
-Heng, sorry, I didn't know you were here.-
-I just got here; It's impossible to park in this area. How are you, huh? Ready for the big day?- the guy asked.
-Well, I wouldn't know, honestly,- she sighed. -I don't know.-
-Come on, you've been waiting for this moment... your whole life.-
-Yeah, but,- she hesitated, -I don't know. What if people don't like it? What if they hate it, Heng?-
-No one is going to hate your book- he said, putting his hands on Freen's, which were moving erratically on the table. -It's impossible to hate your book. It's a beautiful story; you are beautiful, and tomorrow everything is going to be wonderful.-
-But what if people think I'm crazy again?- she whispered.
-No one thinks you're crazy.-
-Well, that's relative.-
-No- the guy said, getting serious, -you're not crazy, and you weren't crazy six years ago. Freen, just because the body didn't show up doesn't mean—- but Freen didn't let him finish.
She raised her hands, breaking the physical contact that she found so hard to tolerate, and leaned back in the chair.
-Okay, Heng. I don't want to talk about that again. Come on, let's go. I'm starving.-
She got up, circling the table without waiting for her friend, who was watching her walk decisively toward the door.
Heng and Freen had met five years ago. They coincided in the therapy group at the center she attended almost a year after the incident on the bridge. Freen wasn't a very open person, although Heng suspected that hadn't always been the case. And the fact that she spent several months in absolute solitude, consumed by anxiety and depression before being dragged by Nam to the center, had blurred the Freen she had been before that. There was hardly anything left of that Freen. Maybe only Nam remained.

Five years earlier.

-Come on, Freen, damn it, pick up the damn phone.-
It was the fifth time Nam had waited for the incessant ringtone without getting an answer. She was at Freen's door, who had been missing for several days. At least she had charged her phone; if it had died, Nam would have called the fire department to break down her door. It had been six months since that spring night, and summer had passed, destroying everything; destroying Freen and everything around her. Her plans, her hopes, everything. And behind that door, silence. Like every day her friend tried to see her.
When Nam arrived at the bridge that day, Freen was sitting with her legs hugged to her chest. Motionless, with her gaze lost somewhere among all that metal framework. Her phone was on the ground, with Nam's contact open as if Freen's brain had only reacted to contact her friend and then shut down. Nam had left the place where they had said goodbye to her just half an hour before in a flash when she heard her shout something about a girl who had jumped off the bridge.
When she arrived and saw her, she knew something had changed forever. She knew that the Freen who had said goodbye to her minutes earlier was no longer there, and it hurt her soul not knowing if she would ever see her again.

And there was Nam, once again in front of her door, even if it was in another place. She rang the doorbell, and this time she heard hurried steps approaching. She sighed. The door opened, and there was her friend, her sister, with a huge orange cat in her arms.
-You made me wait, huh?- Freen said with a hint of the sparkle she used to have in her eyes.
-That's you, bitch. You had to move to the other side of the country,- Nam said, smiling. She didn't get closer. She didn't make a move to hug her, nor did she open her arms expecting Freen to do it, nor did she jump as she imagined their reunion would be after almost two years. However, she noticed Freen's eyes. Those huge brown eyes that she remembered totally empty and dull now seemed to have regained ten percent of what they had been.
Freen gave a faint smile. -Actually, it's you who went to the other end of the country to work. I went two hours from home- Nam wrinkled her nose.
-Irrelevant details- her friend replied, rolling her eyes.
Nam and she kept in touch every week, even though Freen moved away after finishing her treatment to start a new life—the one she planned to start that night— And now her soulmate had flown to her new home to attend the presentation of her book, which would take place the next day.

-Far from Eris- Nam read, holding a copy of the book -This is amazing, Freen.-
Her eyes sparkled with pride as she looked at her friend, who curled up small on the couch. She wasn't very good at receiving compliments, and much less about her book. Sometimes, she still found herself wondering why she had written that story. Why didn't she leave that past behind and just look ahead? And yet, instead of closing that door and never opening it again, she decided to write a novel. She deserved all the anxiety she was feeling this week.
-Well, it's not that much- she said.
-Come on, Freen. It's your dream. I'm very proud of you, of how far you've come- Nam said.
Freen smiled half-heartedly. She wasn't quite sure how to smile anymore. In fact, she didn't remember what her laughter sounded like, and seeing Nam reminded her painfully of it.
-Tomorrow is the big day, everything okay?- her friend asked.
-Everything's fine. I guess. Maybe you can finally meet Heng in person.-
-Heng? Your center mate Heng?-
-The same.-
-Your tall and handsome single friend who hovered around your video calls and greeted me from the background?-
-Exactly.-
-Okay, okay.-
-I already told you, if he's good to you, he's good for me. Anyway, you're not interested, right?-
-You know I'm not.-
-Are we still like this?- Nam rolled her eyes.
-That's how we are.-
-Nobody?-
-Nobody. And it's better this way.-
-But Freen—
-Nobody, Nam. Nobody. Let it go.-

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